It remained the biggest and by the far the most active in Europe, but still declined by 18% with deals down from €238m (£166m) to €194 (£136m), according to figures released by Ernst & Young and VentureOne.

Despite this collapse in value, the number of deals fell by only one from 61 to 60. The IT and software sectors recorded the strongest growth, while biotech investment tumbled.

Overall the European venture capital market fell marginally down from €720m to €709m. Germany declined by almost a third to just €103m, while France dropped 18% to €90m.

Sweden, which climbed dramatically from €30m to €90m and Switzerland, which rose from €14m to €39m, bucked the trend.

In the US deals increased for the first time in three years in the second quarter of the year, climbing 14% to reach $4bn.

Stuart Watson, who leads Ernst & Young’s Venture Capital Advisory Group in the UK said the flat quarter showed that ‘UK and European VC’s are still being more cautious than their US counterparts’.